Hungry Hearts
by Flame-massclans
Summary: Flame, a member of the Alliance, a multi-national Post-apocalyptic messenger faction, is forced to revisit his past, consider his dead lover, reconcile with the death of his daughter, and un-bury a truth that threatens to destroy him. Told from his perspective in a distant past.


p dir="ltr" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"As her vision tunneled and whirled, she could only gasp and choke as her burning lungs struggled to suck in another wheezing breath. Beside her, the bodies of two of the afflicted lay motionless, long scratches down their pelts. On her own, several gashes ran down her side, blood flowing quietly onto the floor of the musty old building. Broken glass cushioned her wounded frame and she hitched as two familiar figures came into view. The dark orange tom and her own daughter, she tried to call out but a harsh grating sound came from her muzzle instead and she felt her whole body twinge in blind pain. The tom got to her first, his voice, once confident and determined had been reduced to a wail of agony, as if her wounds ran down his body. /p  
p dir="ltr" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"He knew at once that she was dying, even if the wounds hadn't been so deep, she would die from infection within days. His heart clenched and he choked on whatever words he had prepared to say to her as he rustled his paws through his kit, using his jaws to pull rolls of gauze and hydrogen peroxide onto the ground beside him. The dance of panic had been increasingly more desperate and the more he tried to get a grip on the bandage the more he faltered. It wasn't working, there was nothing he could do but watch as her gaze grew cold and hard, unseeing. /p  
p dir="ltr" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"strong"Holly, stop!" /strongThe tom growled at his daughter, who was desperately clinging to her dying mother, where she lay on the floor. In a second he had tossed his tools aside, gripping the loose flesh on the back of his daughter's neck between his teeth. The young she-kit gave no notice of him and continued to bury her razor sharp claws into the dying cat while he tugged on her scruff. br /Anyone who was attacked by those creatures would turn into them. It was a grim eventuality that everyone in the Plaguelands had to face. His mate could die any second, and as soon as she did there would be nothing to stop her from tearing their daughter apart./p  
p dir="ltr" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"Giving another heave, they both tumbled backwards. Sharp glass shards scratched at their pelts but neither gave notice, instead their gazes faced the area they had just been in. The wounded she-cat was back on her paws, each of her four legs quivered and twitched slightly. In a blur of orange the tom was in front of his daughter, claws digging into the floor. /p  
p dir="ltr" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"The bloodied she-cat stared blindly at the father and daughter pair before letting out an eerie wail, not unlike a whale call. Slowly, unsteadily, it lurched forward, claws flailing wildly, trying to find a spot in the warm flesh of its family members. The orange tom recoiled, taking his daughter back with him as he turned tail to run. Before he took a single step, he grabbed Holly's scruff in his teeth, holding her above the ground with his powerful neck. His legs thrummed against the filth ridden ground as he looked desperately for an exit, behind them, the walking corpse had begun a faster stumble, getting closer with every second./p  
p dir="ltr" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"Ahead of them laid a pile of boxes surrounded by plastic piping. The sound of rain beckoned the fleeing family towards the old containers before them. Breathlessly he flung himself and his daughter on top of the boxes, scrambling towards the top. Once he had settled himself he sat Holly down beside him and took a second to catch his breath. Holly grumbled angrily at her father, sheathing and unsheathing her claws against the rotting cardboard. Below them, her mother scrabbled at the bottom of the tower, jaws snapping angrily at them. /p  
p dir="ltr" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"Pelt boiling with rage, Holly unsheathed a claw and swung it across her father's face, strong"You could have saved her! Why did you just stand there like an idiot? I hate you, Flame!"/strong He looked at her, and then winced as blood ran down his muzzle where she had cut him. She had attacked him but he could not bring himself to speak. His amber gaze was fixated on his infected mate below. Holly was wrong, it wasn't his fault, he'd tried everything he could- The thought was cut short as the moldy boxes began to give way to their weight and creaked slightly. Quickly Flame grabbed his daughters scruff and aimed towards a window. The glass was thicker than it looked and for a moment his senses were overwhelmed by the impact of his head against the pane. Instinctively he shut his eyes against the razor sharp pieces that scratched his muzzle as he landed on the slick tin roof. Daughter still clenched in his jaws. Blood ran down his muzzle and he winced from the cuts over his pelt, Holly however, seemed unscathed. It took a little bit of effort to stay planted on the slanted and slick roof, but he easily steadied himself./p  
p dir="ltr" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"Beside him, his daughter wept quietly. When his eyes met hers, he saw his own pain reflected in her eyes. Numbly, he licked a paw and drew it over his face wound. "Holly," Flame started gently, "I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I only wanted to keep you two safe." The words fell on deaf ears however and he turned away from her, unable face what had happened./p  
p dir="ltr" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"Flame couldn't believe she was dead. They'd done this plenty of times. What had gone so wrong? He wondered vacantly./p 


End file.
